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Wednesday, October 19, 2022

Early manuscript version of A Visit from St. Nicholas, "copied by a member of Moore family"

Many thanks to John M. J. Gretchko for kindly providing me with an inventory of Clement C. Moore items in American Book Prices Current

Listed in American Book Prices Current for 1977, an early manuscript copy of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" aka "The Night Before Christmas" in the Moore family. This 2-page document "copied by a member of the Moore family" sold for $2,100 at the Harris Auction Gallery in Baltimore, Maryland on March 4, 1977:
Manuscript, "Account of a visit from St. Nicholas." [c. 1824] 2
leaves, 4to. Variant text of The Night Before Christmas copied by a
member of the Moore family.
Harris, Mar 4, 1977, lot 323, $2,100
https://books.google.com/books?id=UFS0QwAACAAJ&dq

In date and content, this item appears comparable to the copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas made by Mary Odell, the daughter of Clement C. Moore's godfather Jonathan Odell. Mary Odell's handwritten copy of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" is now held in the New Brunswick Museum Archives with the Jonathan Odell Family Papers: 1766-1919. The Museum has a 2015 blog post discussing the poem entitled “New Brunswick Museum’s Spirit of the Season.”

Whatever happened to the early manuscript copy of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" sold in 1977 at the Harris Auction Gallery in Baltimore? Is Santa Claus taking requests yet? How I would love to see photos of this rare and important document with a "variant text" of Moore's beloved Christmas poem. 


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